Tear Stained Heart
by Quisty Almasy
Summary: Seifer returns to Balamb Garden to become a SeeD. Little does Seifer know, an unexpected twist will soon change his attitude towards everything and everyone he knows. Soon, time will be Seifer's greatest enemy. Seiftis.
1. Chapter One: Depressed and in Turmoil

**Important author's note and update (8-10-07):**

Hi everyone, I've started this story back in 2003 and haven't updated this since 2005. Now that it's 2007, I've decided to keep my promise and continue this story. My inspiration is officially back. I just wanted to say that when I originally started this story, I had no idea where it was going to go but after brainstorming for what seemed to be a couple of hours, I've decided to keep everything in the two existing chapters how they are, with some changes in descriptions and certain events being added in. I had also changed some sentence structures and typo corrections of course (forgive me, I wrote this first chapter when I was very young). I had the intentions of changing the title because the title now strikes me as a story written by a very young, and dare I say—angsty teen. However, I didn't want to change everything and didn't want people to forget this lil' fic., so I decided to keep the original name.

I just wanted to thank all of you who have read/reviewed my story so far. It is miraculous to me that people even read my stories and I am truly grateful. Thank you all.

Now, here's the revised version and officially continued Tear Stained Heart.

Disclaimer: None of the characters in this story belongs to me, they belong to Squaresoft.

**Tear Stained Heart**

**Chapter one: Depressed and in turmoil**

Quistis Trepe stared into the windows of her small dorm. Dark clouds loomed over the vast fields of Balamb. The once beautiful cerulean skies were turning grayer by the moment, leaving a lonely, bleak, colorless hue to replace it. The sky seemed to somehow reflect what the lovely young woman was feeling at the moment.

It had been a year since she and her friends had defeated the evil sorceress Ultimecia. The group of friends that were known as "heroes" consisted of six members; Squall, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Zell and Quistis. It had been a joyous day. The long hard struggle of defeating the sorceress has finally ended. She was supposed to be happy that day. A celebration had been held in the beautiful Balamb Garden ballroom, complete with elegant decorations that party planner Selphie herself had hand picked. Even Xu, the usual rumored party pooper of Balamb Garden had bought some of the decorations herself.

Everything had been beautiful that night. The stars, the music, the men dressed in elegant black suits and the women in sweeping dresses, everything seemed to come alive from fairy tale stories that Edea used to tell her about back in the orphanage. Quistis herself was wearing a dark sapphire colored beaded dress that was strapless and flowed all the way to the floor. She had found herself tripping over it frequently that night but she hadn't cared. That night she had decided to ditch her usual comfort over beauty regime and instead went for the no pain, no gain plan. That night was supposed to be special. That night, Quistis Trepe was supposed to confess her true feelings to Squall. She had decided that enough time had passed since their last awkward conversation which ended with him telling her to "talk to a wall" and her being depressed and in turmoil afterwards for god knew how long. Plus, everyone had been in a good mood and she had thought that even Squall would have lightened up to everyone else's cheerful mood. Little had she known, Squall was cheerful that night but she had no idea what he was planning.

Unfortunately for Quistis, it was right when she had come into a five feet radius of Squall Leonhart that he, seconds later, had one knee down and one millisecond later, proposed to the love of his life, Rinoa. The happy girl had accepted. Nobody was surprised. They all cheered. Quistis, who had stopped dead in her tracks, had been the first and closest person for Rinoa had run up to and hug. With salty tears mixed with mascara running down her cheeks and a glass of vodka martini in hand, Quistis hugged Rinoa back with her remaining open arm.

"Congratulations Rin! It's about time he proposed," she had said with a smirk and a wink, all the while her heart was slowly breaking inside. The blue eyed beauty continued to play the masquerade for about an hour more while she discussed the happy news with everyone else until she could not take it any longer.

Excusing herself, she had ran, no sprinted, to her dorm and cried her eyes out that night.

A week later, a photograph of Quistis hugging Rinoa that proposal night was featured in the Balamb Garden Student Life newspaper as the "most touching display of happiness for a friend" compared to all the other pictures taken of other people congratulating Squall and Rinoa. Even Selphie and Irvine's bear hugs did not make the cut.

How ironic life had been for Quistis Trepe.

Snapping back to reality while holding back further tears, Quistis continued to look out the window. She felt unloved, alone and like a failure. All her life, all she wanted was to love and be loved. She had successfully accomplished the "to love" part but the "be loved" part was far beyond her grasp and much harder to obtain than she had ever previously predicted.

Instead all those years, with the time left after studying Squall's features, she had spent every other moment studying to become a SeeD instructor. Quistis had at the tender age of 15, made SeeD rank and at age 18, made instructor. Unfortunately, she hadn't been instructor for even a year when Headmaster Cid had decided to take her instructor license away. Didn't think she had any leadership qualities they had said, Quistis recalled bitterly to herself. She remembered even trying to talk to Squall about it, thinking he would care and maybe give a damn about her feelings.

"Talk to a wall", he had said. She said it once again but this time, aloud to herself. For some reason, it made her laugh. Not the funny type of laughter but the laughter of one who had no tears left to shed, one who had no emotions left, except for laughter. How foolish was she to think that Squall would actually care about her thoughts and feelings. At that moment she felt that she deserved to feel the way she did, deserved to be unloved and to be lonely. After all, what kind of person was she to lie about her happiness of Squall and Rinoa's proposal right in front of Rinoa herself? Rinoa had always been nice to her in the past and had always been a great friend; and for that, Quistis felt guilty.

In the end, Quistis had concluded that in all areas of life which were love, career and even friendship, she had failed.

In all areas that Quistis had failed, Rinoa had succeeded. She had gained the love of a man Quistis could not. She had maintained great relationships with every one of her friends while Quistis lied beneath a façade to all of them. Rinoa even started taking classes in hopes of to further deepen her understanding for her newfound sorceress powers.

With her new pristine acceptance of Squall and Rinoa's proposal, Quistis went into a depression afterwards. She went on numerous missions, some important, some close to being pointless. All she wanted to do was keep her busy from thinking too much. Other than for missions, the young ex-instructor almost never left her dorm. None of her friends seemed to notice any difference though. Quistis always fooled everyone into thinking she was perfectly fine but tired after missions with her calm, cool demeanor. Little did they know that once she returned to her dorm, she would fall into a depressed state and spend many sleepless nights daydreaming about her knight and when he would marry another and leave her with the dragons.

A loud, bouncy knock interrupted her thoughts. Quistis looked up at the clock; she had been sitting by the window, lost in her thoughts for a few hours now.

"I'm coming," she replied while hastily wiping the remaining tears off her face. Opening the door, Trepe discovered it was the preppy girl Selphie Tilmitt standing at her doorway. The announcement speakers had been broken so Selphie was probably there to deliver her a message.

"Hi there Quistis!" Selphie chirped in her usual singsong voice.

Quistis smiles, trying desperately to conceal her tears, "Hey Selphie, um is there something I could help you with?" Thankfully, Selphie doesn't seem to notice her misery.

"Well, Cid told me to tell everyone that there is a private meeting in his office tonight. He told me it's extremely important. It starts in an hour."

"Oh, ok, Thanks for telling me Selphie, I'll be there."

Quistis is about to close the door when she notices that Selphie is still standing at the doorway.

"Is there something else that you wanna tell me?" she questions.

"Um, yeah, the meeting is about Seifer, he's coming back."

**Ending Author's note:**

Previous Vodka Martini reference was taken from James Bond flicks. Damn he's a sexy man. The "to love and be loved" reference was taken from our favorite Bohemian love story turned tragedy movie, Moulin Rouge. I cry to that movie even today.

Ok confession, I ended up adding and changing a lot of stuff for this chapter but hey, I love improvement and it's not like you original readers will be able to remember my old, far less than perfect chapter one predecessor anyways. So like always, review please )


	2. Chapter Two: The Return of the Infamous ...

**Author's note and update (8-10-07):** After spending a lot of time revising my first chapter, I decided to go on and revise the second. Please remember to read and review. Thank you!

**Chapter two: Return of the infamous knight**

People scurried from every direction as Quistis and Selphie forcefully pushed their way through the endless crowds of students trying to make their way to class on time. As Selphie and Quistis came closer to the pathway leading to the elevator doors, they noticed a mob of students waiting at the opening. They were shouting protests against the re-admittance of Seifer. _Boy, news sure does travel fast, _Quistis thought to herself.

"Move it! Out of the way!" shouted Selphie with a loud, high-pitched voice. "Make way for official SeeD business!"

As they moved closer towards the door, Quistis couldn't help but hear one of the people in the mob say, "Damn Balamb if it'll allow that lapdog to come back."

Shaking herself mentally, the blue eyed ex-instructor ignored the crude comment and made her way into the elevator. Pushing the button for the third floor, she and Selphie both stood in silence. The only sound that could be heard was the soft humming of the elevator making its way to its inevitable destination.

Moments later the elevator came to a stop. The metal doors slid open and Quistis and Selphie hastily made their way into Headmaster Cid's office.

"Glad to see you two finally made it." said Cid with a semi-annoyed expression on his face.

Quistis looked around the room. It seemed like she and Selphie were the last ones to report to the meeting. Commander Squall, Irvine, Zell, and even Rinoa were already there. They were the last ones to join the party.

"I'm sorry Sir, but a mob of people were blocking us from reaching here on time." replied Quistis cautiously. Cid held up his hand motioning to her that the matter was forgiven.

Finally after the commotion settled down, Commander Squall cleared his throat and spoke in that clear resonating voice of his whenever it was time to be "Commander" to everyone. "We are all here today in terms of discussing the re-admittance regarding the former student of Balamb Garden, Seifer Almasy."

Everyone in the room gasped except for Quistis and Selphie, who had known what the meeting would be about beforehand.

Squall continued, "I'm pretty sure that all of you have already heard about this information beforehand so I'll get straight to the point. Seifer was found unconscious a few days ago near Lake Lamia in the Trabian territories. The Trabian officials immediately recognized him as the former Sorceress's Knight so they quickly turned him into the Galbadian military leaders. They decided that his fate would lie on the hands of the Galbadian Senate. However, although half of the Galbadian Senate wanted to charge him with war crimes, the other half did not favor any negative charges pressed on Seifer until they could retrieve hard evidence that Seifer had indeed done all the crimes on his own will. So a few days later, they took him to the Odine Laboratory in Esthar and found out crucial evidence that the Sorceress had indeed controlled him during the time of where he committed these crimes. In other words, Seifer is not to be held accountable for his crimes during the time of the Ultimecia crisis."

"Wait a minute," interfered Zell, "So you mean Seifer is actually _innocent_?"

"That's precisely what I mean." replied Squall with his usual expressionless face.

_So Seifer has been innocent all along. I knew he would never try to kill us with his own will. I should know—I used to be his Instructor, _Quistis thought gloomily.

"Continuing with my summary," stated the already annoy Squall, "Galbadia decided that since Seifer was legally proven innocent, they would release him, meaning he is now a free man. Now you can imagine how furious some people were when the news was publicly announced. Even though he didn't commit any crimes, most of the public still couldn't forgive him completely for his previous actions. Because of this, the Galbadia government decided that public security was imperative. They concluded that the public would feel safer if he lived in a military supervised institution, hence a Garden."

"But why our Garden?" interrupted Zell. "I'm sure the other two Gardens would _love_ to take him in," he ended with a tone of sarcasm.

"Zell! Didn't you even hear Squall? He's innocent and you should keep in mind that he used to be one of our childhood friends." Selphie said sympathetically. Irvine smiled.

"Aw my Selphie is always such a sweet girl," He cooed. Selphie squealed and hugged Irvine. Everyone else in the room just shrugged. That was the typical case scenario in the Selphie and Irvine relationship.

"Ahem! Like I was saying," Squall said, now even more annoyed at the various interruptions throughout his briefing. "To answer your question Zell, evidently, our Garden would be the ideal choice. Certainly Galbadia didn't want to recruit him to their academy because it is too strict and military-like for our newly freed man. Trabia is still under heavy construction, which left our Garden as the last choice. Seifer has already agreed to these terms with one condition, to become a SeeD. So, Balamb Garden held a conference with the two other Gardens and decided that we would get custody of Seifer. He will, starting tomorrow, live and study as a Balamb student, cadet rank, once again. He will be trained to become a SeeD. Once he gains his SeeD title, Seifer will no longer be forced to stay here. He will be able to roam freely and serve as a SeeD like he desires. Any questions?" Squall finished. At that moment, commotion rang out in the room.

"Is he still gonna get some sort of punishment?" asked Zell eagerly.

"What about Seifer's attitude? We all know it's not going to be easy to handle." exclaimed Rinoa.

"Who are you going to assign to personally instruct him?" asked Quistis.

Lots of questions sprang out, leaving poor Commander Squall to answer them all. _I'm beginning to get annoyed at this Commander stuff, _Squall thought to himself. "No, Seifer will not receive punishment. Yes, Seifer needs to improve his attitude and behavior, which leads me to the answer of the last question. Cid and I have already discussed this issue beforehand and we've decided that Instructor Devon will be Seifer's private instructor from now on." For just a slight moment, a flicker of disappointment ran through Quistis's eyes. Squall continued, "She has the right experience and the right credentials to instruct somebody like Seifer. From now on, she will decide what lessons and training Seifer needs to become a SeeD. I hope that will answer all your questions for now."

Relieved, Squall took a sip from a glass of water on top of Cid's maple wood desk. He sat down and looked at everyone in the room. Rinoa smiled at him, silently congratulating him on being a good Commander. Selphie and Irvine were hugging each other, looking like they were in their own worlds again. Zell was throwing punches in the air, doing his usual routine when he was bored. Then, glancing over at Quistis, Squall noticed that she was being extremely quiet, as if she was thinking about something real hard and serious in matter. Something was bugging her. But then again, with the return of Seifer, what's not to be bugged about. Squall shrugged off his thoughts. "Well, everyone should get back to their rooms now and get some rest. I think we've all gotten enough stress today to last us a lifetime."

The group of teenagers nodded and each of them slowly left the room. However, Cid motioned for Quistis to stay behind. Puzzled, the blonde took a seat.

"Quistis, I noticed that lately you seem like there's a lot going on in your head, is there something that you want to talk about?" he questioned.

Startled at this question, Quistis put on her usual "I'm ok" façade. "No Sir, I'm fine. Thank you for worrying about me but I assure you, I'm ok. The SeeD training and missions have been giving me some grief lately so I'm pretty tired." she lied.

"Are you sure?" he continued with eyes filled with worry.

"Yes I'm sure." Quistis insisted.

"You know you can always tell me or Edea about anything that bothers you ok? Just know we are always here to listen and help out. Remember to take care of yourself. You always did back in the orphanage." Quistis smiled. "In fact you did it so well you started taking care of all those other kids too." Cid said with a laugh. "Well anyways I shouldn't be holding you here anymore. You should get some rest."

"Thanks Cid, I'll be sure to take your advice to heart. Good Night." Quistis said with a genuine smile while she turned and left the office. _Cid is right, I should take care of myself better. I'm actually starting to get damned blue circles underneath my eyes. Well, guess tomorrow is going to be quite an extraordinary day. The return of the infamous knight, _Quistis thought to herself. It would be a day she would look forward to indeed.

Ending Author's note:

Please remember to review. Compliments, constructive criticism, random comments are welcome. Thanks!


	3. Chapter Three: A late night encounter

**Author's note: **Hey everyone. About two weeks have past since I updated/revised the previous two chapters of this fic. I'm glad to be back, announcing a new chapter to this story after two long, barren years. As always, please remember to read and review cuz I'd love to know if any of you still remember this lil' old fic. of mine.

**Chapter three: A late night encounter**

A nice, cool drink of fountain water was always fitting after a long day of SeeD business. Quistis bent down and slowly took a sip of water from the fountain near her dorm. Wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her familiar peach battle outfit, the blue eyed woman continued on her nightly escapade.

Nighttime was always the best time to roam the halls of Balamb Garden and Quistis Trepe always took full advantage of times like these. No Trepies would stalk her; no Garden staff would be around to ask her of favors, and best of all, chances of bumping into the famous couple were zero. She was safe. Passing by the dorm rooms, Quistis couldn't help but get feelings of nostalgia as her old classroom doorway loomed ahead of her.

Glancing in without actually stepping foot inside, Quistis stuck her head in and peered around. Her old chalkboard was still dirty and filled with notes from the day's last class. Old computers sat on top of rusty desks. Thinking to herself, Quistis couldn't help but wonder where Garden's funds went to if their own teacher/student equipment were left dirty and old. After much thought, Quistis concluded that it probably all went to the Human Relations Department a.k.a. damage control.

The Human Relations Department consisted of ten SeeD members who, whenever Garden had to complete a rather controversial assignment, would assure the press that everything done was legal and in terms with all three Gardens' rulebooks. Even though the job sounded easy, it actually in reality was probably harder than defeating a T-Rexuar with one hand tied behind ones back. Quistis would slit her own throat before becoming a member of the damage control department. The media is one big pain in the ass and has many paparazzi members, ready to slew out bad text about any of the garden members 24/7. After the recent Sorceress War, the media became even more of a problem. Instead of focusing only on Garden issues, they now targeted Balamb's most beloved members too, meaning the legendary hero group which Quistis herself, was unfortunately included in. Any new news or rumors about any one of the hero group members would be made known to the world in a single day. Because of this, migraines became more frequent for the ex-instructor and staying in her own room most of the time, was becoming a much more desired pastime than it ever was before.

Taking her glasses off and rubbing the lenses with her shirt, Quistis sighed to herself. Life was becoming more tiresome each day and as each day passed; she couldn't help but wonder if there was more to life than pining away for Squall and going on pointless missions. Of course, it wasn't that she wanted to spend her days thinking about Squall but it was just that she just damn couldn't help it. There was just something about Squall that drawn her to him. At first, she had mistaken it for sisterly love but as the sorceress war drew her closer to him, and unfortunately, him to Rinoa, she had decided that her feelings were indeed love and that she was hopelessly in love with him.

Steadying her grip on the doorframe, the blue-eyed woman sighed once again and decided that her time of reminiscing old times were spent for the night. She was about to close the door to her old classroom when she heard someone cough. It seemed to be coming from inside the classroom.

_That's strange, _Quistis thought to herself. _I could have sworn the room was empty just a moment ago._ Looking around the room once again while cautiously taking a few steps inside, she saw a figure slouched over at a desk in the far corner of the room. Some computers were blocking her view from before but now that Quistis had stepped into the room, it was becoming more and more clear what had made the cough and exactly who it had been.

"Why Commander, I never knew you were so fond of class." Quistis said.

The brown haired man suddenly sprang up from the desk, looking very disoriented and surprised. Quistis smiled. Apparently she had caught him catching Z's on top of a desk in the middle of the night.

"Quistis?" He asked while squinting, trying to make out the figure that had woken him from his deep slumber.

"Yes it's me, who else would wander through the halls late at night and stop by a classroom?" Quistis replied. _Nice try at some conversation,_ she cursed silently to herself. _I wonder how long I had stood here and how long he's been asleep. Oh my Hyne what if he had actually been watching me this whole time and had heard me sigh thousands of times? Oh the embarrassment,_ Quistis thought, slapping her forehead.

"Are you ok Quistis?" Squall asked with some concern in his storm grey eyes.

Quistis, not expecting such a question, tried to think of something witty to say to the young man, standing before her. _It's hard talking to a person I've just been thinking romantically about._

"Well I should be asking you if you're ok. Why are you sleeping out here anyways? I hear Commanders have updated dorms, complete with a king sized beds. That should beat sleeping on a hard wooden desk right?" she replies with a smile. _Take that embarrassing feelings!_

"Oh sorry. Me and Rin had a small fight and one thing led to another. Before I knew it she kicked me out." He replied with a sad smile.

"Oh, what happened?" Quistis asks while fidgeting with her thumbs.

"Just stuff about the wedding and, well it's nothing." He replies.

"Well don't feel too sad about it. Rinoa is a forgiving girl and before you know, she'll let you back in." Quistis replied with a bit too much enthusiasm. _My, my Trepe where did you learn to control your emotions so well?_

"I sure hope so; hard wooden desks are really not as comfortable as they used to be back when you taught class" the grey eyed man jokes while raking his fingers through his coffee colored hair.

Chuckling, Quistis couldn't help but feel a blush creeping up to her cheeks. She silently thanked Hyne that Balamb was cheap and had shut off all the lights to the classrooms at nightfall. Who knew what Squall would have said or how he would have reacted if he had known what an effect he had on the poor woman.

"I never knew you paid so much attention to my lectures Leonhart. What a great Commander you'll make one day" she teased.

"For your information, I already made Commander, Instructor Trepe."

"Hey now, no pulling rank. It's not nice making fun of someone who gained and lost their job in one year."

"And it's not nice waking up someone in the middle of the night either."

"Touché Leonhart."

Both of them laughed.

_Man did Squall change a lot. I can't believe that Rinoa had changed him so much with so little time. Man, am I a failure._

Clearing his throat, Squall got up from his desk. "Anyways, as much fun it is talking to my dear old instructor again, it's time for me to make amends to my fiancé."

"Good luck Squall."

"Thanks for waking me up."

And with that, the man of Quistis' dreams walked out of the classroom and soon will be in the arms of the woman he loved, which Quistis would have killed for at the moment to have it be her.

Quistis herself, feeling tired, started for her own dorm room. After minutes of walking through the empty halls and taking another drink from the water fountain, she was back in front of her dorm. Sliding the card key through the door slot, she opened the door and to her surprise, finds a small piece of paper lying on the ground. It seems like somebody had slid it through the bottom of the door. Taking the piece of paper from the ground, the very confused and somewhat curious Quistis opened the folded paper. Inside, a short note was written in a familiar handwriting that Quistis would never in her life forget.

"Dear Instructor,

I'm back.

Miss me much?

-Your favorite student"

_What is he up to now? _Quistis thought to herself while once again, taking off her glasses and wiping them on her sleeves. She could feel another migraine coming up and this one, she predicted, was going to be an annoying, agitating one that would last for months.

**Ending author's note: **I know things seem to be progressing pretty slowly but trust me, I know what I'm doing. And don't worry, this WILL be a Seiftis and all this little stuff is relevant ) I will update as soon as possible with the next chapter containing Seiftis goodness. But as for this chapter, please R & R. Thank you again.


End file.
